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For most of history, almost everyone was poor. Power and wealth belonged to only a few.

Redistribution of wealth would require enormous amounts of investment. The only time an elite has accepted this has been during crises, such as in America in the 1930s under Roosevelt.

I led a comfortable life, went to good schools and was privileged in many ways, but my father worked hard. We never considered ourselves rich.

Any of the social changes in American history are because people thought there was injustice. We have to show that this corporate welfare and cronyism is unjust - and that it's not only rigging the system so people get wealthy who don't deserve to get wealthy.

In the Eisenhower era, when earnings over $400,000 were subject to 91 percent taxes and the world was a smaller place, you could count the truly wealthy on one hand: Getty, Dupont, Mellon, Rockefeller, though even those fortunes were being dispersed to children as the old robber barons died off.

I'm from a middle class family, but my father squandered all the money, so I didn't really run around with rich people.

The fact is that, except for those very few whose wealth is overwhelmingly or entirely inherited, the more affluent have usually worked harder than the less affluent.

I was not raised with wealth or resources or any social standing to speak of.

Radical thought has inspired many of the great political and social reform movements in American history, from ending slavery to establishing the minimum wage.